RCB kept their dream of claiming a maiden IPL title alive by entering the final, defeating Punjab Kings by eight wickets in Qualifier 1 in Mullanpur on Thursday.
RCB will await the winner of Qualifier 2 in the summit clash, while Shreyas Iyer’s men will now meet the winners of the match between Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans on Sunday to have a second chance of making the final.
The RCB bowlers set it up perfectly on a lively wicket, dismissing Punjab Kings for 101 in 14.1 overs. Phil Salt (56 not out off 27 balls) then batted responsibly to take them home with 60 balls remaining.
Virat Kohli got the chase off to a majestic start with a first-ball pull off a bouncer from Arshdeep Singh. There was some seam movement, but Punjab could hardly attack since they didn’t have the runs to play with.
Kohli departed just when he seemed to be finding his groove. It was more of a Test dismissal — just short of a length, in the channel with some seam movement and extra bounce for Kyle Jamieson. Kohli looked to steer it off the front foot but edged behind. It hardly mattered though.
Bowlers’ show
Josh Hazlewood showed that his presence can make a lot of difference on a hard and bouncy wicket. He dealt the blows after Yash Dayal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar had dismissed Punjab’s successful opening pair of Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh inside the first three overs.
The Australian rocked the Punjab innings by removing Shreyas and Josh Inglis in consecutive overs before Suyash Sharma ran through the middle order to send them packing. Both Hazlewood and Suyash finished with three wickets each.
The slide
The home team’s steep slide began when in-form opener Arya was caught at cover off Dayal as he couldn’t check his drive. His opening partner Prabhsimran (18 off 10) followed him back into the dugout in the following over from Bhuvneshwar.
Shreyas, who has been central to the team’s success this season, went for a wild slog off Hazlewood on his third ball of the innings but was caught behind. He tried an expansive shot, but the length was not there for execution. It was neither full nor short but managed only to snick it behind.
The Australian seamer then dealt the knockout blow when Inglis was dismissed to a similar shot. Hazlewood was harping on the hard lengths and was utilising the extra bounce to his advantage. Inglis’ top edge was taken cleanly at long leg.
RCB had the match in their favour by the end of the Powerplay overs as Punjab were reduced to 48/4. To make it worse, the Punjab batters showed no restraint and continued to go for their shots to hasten their downfall.
Suyash plan
Suyash then joined the party. Shashank Singh went for the slog sweep but could not connect to the googly.
Musheer Khan, making an unexpected IPL debut as an Impact player with wickets falling in a heap, too fell to a sweep off Suyash, who got his googly to turn sharply. Two wickets in his opening over boosted his confidence as the Punjab batters struggled against his guile.
Marcus Stoinis (26 off 17) too failed to pick his wrong’un. The leg-spinner finished with 3/17 to send shock waves through Punjab dugout.
